UMECUnited Mining Exploration Commission: A group of friends playing JumpGate-- "a MMORPG that launched smoothly, breaks from fantasy character setting, emphasizes PvP, and is the first persistent world space simulator that nobody talks about." ~Scorch

[url=]Demo graphic (640k)[/url]
Sweeeeeeet! dropped my jaw seeing the ground from the 5 story keep.
[url=]Demo graphic (480k)[/url]
Uhm...i wonder what that did? (found it in the first area before the Crypt)

If you own it, as the host, if you exit the game you are able to save the game, and your MP character is persisted at whatever level/skills he had at close.

However, my wife and I were actually disappointed by the game and haven't played it jointly since our first session (IN MP mode you can't have NPCs join or add pack mules -- lame) so I don't know about loading the MP game after a save. :sad:

_________________-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The light at the end of the tunnel,
is a squad of flux aiming at you.

Anything you do with your character in MP is saved. Equipment acquired, money made, levels earned, all save. That includes quest items, but not quests. Fortunately, Utraenean quests are all structured so you can return to them/join them at any point.

i.e. if you play and get the first 6 townstones, then quit your MP game, and then restart a MP game, you can take up with the 7th stone.

It's all persistent, sort of: the only differences (and they're good or bad, depending on your outlook) is that every time you restart a MP game, the monsters respawn. The MP games only save character data, not world data. That's the persistence you're complaining about.

And yet... there's a benefit to that, too. *shrug*

See y'all there, if you want to join me. PM me and I'll see about hosting a Zone game. :smile:

HOW? (I do have a LinkSys) I try to host games but it doesn't work. Not in Zone, anyways. They can see me listed, but can't find my computer. I also get dropped from Zone games when I try to play them, usually.

Aye, you can level slower, but if melee friend is getting greedy, stop the nice Healing wind and such. If you have a nice friend he will want to level as well. Let him rely upon the health elixirs or his own nature skill.

My situation, 1melee, 1combat, and a nature mage(me). My melee friend got too comfortable with rushing everything and killing it all before us mages really had a chance to start doing anything. We'll I asked that he slow down a bit and when he didn't he got no more heals from me. Funny how they slow down, a lot when they run out of elixirs. Yep, I stayed behind in levels, but the higher levels are where you start to shine. Melee friend kept doing as he was but didn't like it much when my combat mage friend and I returned the favor after 60+. Combat mage+pet+pillar of fire was completely destroying everything and me with my Sun Ray(range 13 fast casting DD spell that doesn't miss)+pet+storm(high damage lighting spell that hits anything in range for dur40 is nice).

Really depends on play style IMO which you'll be best off with. I've a level 65 archer/nature as well and he doesn't kill as fast, but rarely gets in trouble either.

*ramble off*

ooooo...BUFFS STACK THEIR TIME. k3wl
and OMG! i found a map for the Utrean Peninsula campaign. wow.
And for a fascinating lecture on multiclassing and xp sliders...here.

Though i'm really not sure about easy/normal/hard difficulty affecting XP rewards...it looks like it balances out.

But i AM certain if you play Veteran/Elite mode you'll get more xp, but solo-ing in MP is inefficient. (though, the thing is i'm not sure if one can play a SP game over again with a previous character)

Eeek! dammit - Too late I suppose. Oh well.
Dungeon Siege - I hate it. Played the demo a bit got thougharaly pissed off with it over the course of one weekend.

Despite the lack of 3d gfx, I find Diablo II much more playable. Yes - I play D2X AND prefer it to DS!

Diabli II multiplayer is just SO much more seamless than Dungeon Siege - at least on a LAN - and since playing D2X in hardcore - well ive just lost all respect for how other games handle death. Using "LoadGame" to get past sections of a game is just evil - either the game must handle death in a gracefull recoverable way - or when you die you die dammit! After D2 & D2X I just cant take games with "Load Game" options seriously anymore.

Well, I have to agree with you all, to a point. DS is pretty lame, once you've played a while. I got my main up to L71, but DS's lack is a near-absence of plot. There's just no reason to play. If I want to be with friends... I'll fly my Phoon. :smile:

Seriously, DS AND D2 and other pseudo-3d hackandslash games just don't offer what I'm looking for, I guess. Not that Jumpgate's much better - still a lack of plot and active, evolving events (though more than DS!)

I play tabletop RPGs too, and those lack the visuals, the sense of 'being there' that computer games grant. The sounds and sights can't be recreated by (most) GMs verbally.

Reading books is great too, and more interactive than a movie (your imagination must engage the text or you won't enjoy it) but they lack too because of having a static plot. CYOAs (Choose Your Own Adventure) don't count.

So where does that leave one seeking plot, friends, and an immersive universe?

Too few decent gear/spells and the ones you have you either never need to change anything or you're micromanaging.

No ability to hire npcs/donkeys in multiplayer and the linear plot line never really allowed one to call one spot "home" and interact with the locals (you were always going onward for harder trials and better gear)

dull enemies and poor rewards (most times the boss gave crappy items and luck played a part in those. abysmal)

Totally hamstrung wpn/bow/spell/spell selection that screwed the seamlessness of combat (especially the lack of a third spell option - ie. heal/summon/combat)

Only control one summoned creature per caster?!?! (and how much mana does it cost!?)

The "Laura Croft" feel of the visuals...after a while it all seemed to blah. Vistas? sure, but it wasn't anything like seamless. you had vistas then you had silly repetitive battles. they never seemed to combine.

Cutscenes? where? who? what? And the ending of the game was pretty anticlimactic. (you mean i did all this out of the goodness of my heart?!?!)

Lack of special abilities!! yes! that was the key thing that excites me about Diabo2 (yes i still have it installed on my computer)

I don't even want to mention the spooge factor of NWN...droool!

And talking about multiplayer. what the hell was up with the zonematch stuff? no ping readings? wtf? inability to order the games in anything but alphabetical??!?

omg! and the lack of town portals! aieee!! (not to mention the transmute was a rip off spell)

the soundeffects of the Dragon chaingun was pretty annoying after a while

*sigh* You know what? the game would be great for mods and stuff. really cool stuff, especially if one used the viewhack (haven't yet)

I enjoyed it...especially the squad tactics. Just too bad it cost me a pretty penny, since it has ZERO replay value.

now, an analogy to Diablo2 and this game would be to say the entire game you're doing the jungle run...that damned maze of annoyingly fast little critters and their blowguns.

A Diablo II mod just might rock in the Dungeon siege engine... then again the skill system is probably too intrinsic to the engine for any sort of implementation of the Diablo II classes and skill system to be considered.

I played a borrowed copy of DS long enough to get a single character up to level 30 after deciding that micro managing an entire party was just tedious in the extreme. So I fired the lot and kept my starting combat mage + donkey for loot.

The only reason I played as far as Act IV / level 30 was a perverse belife that surely it was going to get better soon.

Bah.

After wandering around in a endless seeming swamp that looked pretty but was one dull battle after another I threw in the towel and decided that it was time to figure out MySQL - so im now snapshotting the jossh inventory to a mySQL db. Now i must just figure out something usefull to do with all that data... (4213 rows every 10 minutes adds up quickly)

I figured I owed it to Chris Roberts to play DS just because of all the Wing Commander and Privateer goodness he produced. I agree, the game gets boring fast and multiplayer on the zone was major laggy.

I just want to point out that my faith in PC Gamer is dropping daily. They refuse to acknowledge JG's existance, yet gives a boring game like DS 91%. Money talks and Editors suck.

your best bet is to follow the trails. don't go off the beaten track because it's horribly linear and the treasures are mostly random, so don't expect any cool stuff just cause you found a wicked hidden spot.

the other tip is to specialize. you MUST have a warrior who works on strength (to wear the heavy armour and vitality). You also must have a specialized COMBAT mage, otherwise you'll end up with stupidly low lvl healing clerics.

Also, get your dexterity up because the rings/amulets to boost str/dex are few and far between...you'll want to use the "dragon chaingun" which needs 29 dex (that's later on in the swamps though)

hmmmm...can't think of much more than that, but if you have a powerful computer do try that viewhack cheat. otherwise you'll find the "fog" hampers the enjoyment of the aesthetics.

finally, the only disappointment in the game was the only time i really enjoyed the game was when you get ambushed from all sides...sadly, that aspect of the game is apparent in only one level of the game. (which is a real damned shame...i was actually enjoying the paranoia it developed)

well - i woudn't have made it past level 10 unless I did the following:

Ignore the damn party aspect of the game. Micro-managing party members bites. With any sort of party you get members that get kills and members that dont and the ones that do level faster and the others get left behind level wise and its just a damn struggle.

So i fired the lot of them, and went forth with just my starting character - a pure combat mage. Which did me well until the swamp that just uninspired me.

i play DS off and on, when i get my cable modem ill want to play online.
dial up lags to bad. there is an editer you can download for free at the DS website. i will prob make some levels :) I have to say I like diablo a lil better, the game to look for is Never Winter Nights, this is a baulders gate type of game and will let a player take the DM job, sounds fun :)
you can find me on battle net & zonematch as "ferndip"_________________"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity" Lazarus Long